It's time for another miscellaneous post on Little Man!
Coop's Scoop
Cooper LOVES Sadie. He is fascinated by her. He constantly reaches for her and his eyes follow her everywhere. He smiles whenever she comes near. However, Sadie doesn't love him back. Her ears look so long and soft and stretchy to Cooper. But they're not stretchy. When those little hands first discovered those fluffy ears, he immediately went to pulling them. Since then, Sadie normally keeps her distance. Sometimes -briefly- she'll come to him and give him a quick lick. I hate to break it to the poor dog, but this is a problem that will probably be getting worse before it gets better.
Cooper's new favorite thing to do is lay on the floor with Karl or me, just like in the above picture. He talks, laughs, rubs our faces, puts his fingers in our mouths, and puts our fingers in his mouth. This is our favorite thing to do now too.
Another favorite for Little Man is getting his diaper changed. While having him up on his changing table, we like to use this time to tickle him and blow on his tummy. We'll say, "Uh oh, sneak attack!!!" and Cooper immediately starts wiggling and laughing. Then we'll blow on his tummy, and he thinks it is so funny. There is nothing I love to hear more than that sweet laugh!
Speaking of that sweet little voice, Little Man is becoming increasingly vocal. He loves to "talk" and prefers to do it while you are talking and with his fingers or paci in his mouth. If you stop talking and/or take out his paci, he goes silent. We need to work on the rules of conversation! :)
Cooper reaching for the camera when I was trying to take his picture.
He grabs and chews...EVERYTHING!
He is increasingly curious about new things and reaches for everything. Once he gets what he's reaching for, it goes straight to his mouth. Which leads me to another current love of his: chewing. He chews on his fingers, my fingers, his toys, Sadie's toys, his blanket, and absolutely everything else, including his paci.
Cooper's personality continues to become more apparent as he gets older. He loves to laugh and play more than anything. Everything makes him smile, and I've learned that just as there are different cries, there are different smiles. There's the content smile after he eats; the big gummy smile when he thinks something is funny; the mouth wide open smile that often goes with a squeal when he's really happy (like when Daddy comes home); and there's the half-smile you get when something's only a little funny (Karl and I think he gives us that one just to humor us, and we usually feel pretty dumb when we get that smile). He is very curious about new things, but he is hesitant and needs a little reassuring before he opens up to them. It looks like he might be a little shy and reserved at first, but he does warm up fairly quick.
We haven't started solids yet, and I'm planning on holding off until he's 6 months. He's doing great nursing and is growing and thriving, so we're in no hurry. He's wearing a size 2 diaper and is in 6 month clothes.
Little Man is still toothless, even though we've all thought he was teething since he was 3 months old! He chews and drools and shows every sign of cutting a tooth, so maybe soon. (maybe??)
I don't really have any dislikes to report. He seems to like his car seat finally and doesn't pitch a fit anymore when we're in the car (makes traffic much more bearable!). I guess the only dislike for him is naps. For the most part, he either fights going to sleep or he wakes up after a short period of time and fights going back to sleep.
Splish, splash, Coop was taking his bath... Cooper loves his bath time, but not in a splish-splash kind of way. He has ones of those baby tubs that has a newborn side and an infant side. He's still on the newborn side until he can sit on his own. The newborn side is angled, and he likes to slide down it so his head (not face) is in the water and his knees are bent up. His belly pokes out of the water, and it's pretty cute. He could stay like that all day! After I bathe him, I pour water over his belly to keep it warm, and he just smiles and relaxes. It's precious!
Snooze News... I wish I could report that Little Man was napping great and sleeping through the night. He's doing neither. He does take 3 naps a day, but the length of the naps varies from day to day. For the most part, he usually only gets 1 good nap each day, and the other 2 he fights at some point (either in going down or staying down). We're actually getting up with him more than ever at night because of two things: 1. He has decided that he now loves his paci and can't sleep without it. Therefore, Karl and I make several trips to Coop's crib at night to re-insert the darn paci! 2. Now that he's rolling over, we don't swaddle him anymore, and he seems to be waking himself up either by jerking or rolling around a lot more now because of that. When he starts rolling during the night, it either wakes him up and he wants to play or he knocks out his paci and gets mad. Hopefully once he's over the excitement of his new trick, he'll settle down at night. In addition to the trips to retrieve his paci for him, I only feed him once during the night though, and that's consistently around 4:00 a.m. He then gets up at 7:00 to start his day.
One more miscellaneous piece of info on my Little Man: His hair is starting to grow back! It's just coming in much, much lighter (not quite blond, but close). It still sticks up every which way, and I love that!
Cooper's 6 month birthday is next week, and I'm in shock over it! How has it already been almost 1/2 a year?!
